I really enjoyed the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar because I loved the pictures in the book and how the caterpillar kept eating more and getting bigger with each new food that was introduced. I liked to see what would happen as the story progressed. I was a fan of this book because there were not too many words. It had suspense and made me want to turn the page but it was enticing to the eye as well as my imagination.
2. I Spy Books by Walter Wick
The I Spy books are not the typical storybook, although, I thought it was a pretty neat idea to be able to open a book and basically solve a puzzle or problem without reading it. I like to solve puzzles and use logic to figure out different things and these books could keep me busy for hours. There are many types of I Spy books. There are holiday I Spy books and also just regular pictures where you need to find the objects listed on the page for that particular one. Even though I didn’t read a story in this specific book, I was able to read the words of the objects to be found.
3. The Berenstain Bear Books by Jan and Stan Berenstain
The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist
The Bike Lesson
The Golden Rules
The Berenstain Bear stories were interesting to me because they always taught me, as a reader, a life lesson. The books dealt with many types of social skills that young children have to deal with in school or with friends on a daily basis. I remember some of the books, which I mentioned about the Bears going to the dentist and sharing a bike and also the golden rules, which was about using manners and being a good person. The pictures were always entertaining and I felt that these books were easy to read.
4.James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
This creative book was one of my favorites. I enjoyed reading this because of all the imaginative scenes it has. Who would think someone could live in a peach pit? When it begins James has a hard time dealing with his parents dying so he then has to live with his aunts who were mean and nasty to him. I thought about the book when I was younger and realized that it had some funny parts and creative parts but I now see that there was violence and
abuse in that book. I never really noticed it until I was older but I see how it could be portrayed in another way. At a young age, I believe the creativity is what made this book enjoyable.
5.Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
As a child, I liked books that would rhyme or tell a story through a rhyming theme. This book was fun and exciting as were all of the Dr. Seuss books. I did read more than just this specific book, but this one was a favorite. My reason for always choosing this in Library class was because I wanted to read the rhyming words and see the funny and out-of-the-ordinary illustrations.
6.Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
This is a book of poems that Shel Silverstein writes and I loved reading all of the crazy ways he can share poetry with children but in a fun and extraordinary way. My favorite poem in the book was called “The What-ifs.” I enjoyed others but that always was the poem I read a million times. I now see that it is about anxiety that kids can have growing up.
7.Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? By Bill Martin Jr. And Eric Carle
I really liked this book because of the pictures and rhyme. I liked having someone read this story to me and have me finish the sentence and allow me to feel as though I was reading it by myself. I have read this book to children and allowed them to do the same thing.
8.Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
This book was special to me because it was always a great book before bedtime. I always liked that it wasn’t too long and even though the pictures weren’t really extravagant it still was a good story. This was another story that was always fun to have read to you.
9.Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
I remember reading this story in fifth grade. It was in our reading book but our teacher read the whole book to us when we finished it. We had a really neat art project to do to go along with the book where we had to create a first-aid kit. I thought that was a great lesson to accompany the book and it was fun to listen to the teacher read to us.
10.Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi
This book speaks for itself by the title. I of course enjoyed the humor in this book. I thought it was funny just looking at the pictures and definitely made it even funnier to have someone read it to me. This is a book that always gets passed around by family members and read to the younger kids in my immediate family.
The books I chose from my life that always seem to make an impact are the ones that I can remember reading without thinking about it. They pop into my head almost immediately and it sparks the place I was when I first heard them. All of these books have one specific thing in common and that is being entertained. I have been entertained every time I heard any of the books on my list. Young children like to be entertained by what they read and they like to be read to by others for enjoyment. Kids like to look at colorful illustrations and stories that may relate to their own lives. That’s how I feel about the books I chose as well.
To the faculty and staff of my building, I feel as though the students are not as excited about literature as they were at one time. I feel like they would rather spend their time on social media sites or texting their friends about their activities after school. Maybe letting the students choose a chapter book in a genre that they feel more comfortable, or allowing more input by the student rather than having the teacher choose all of the reading assignments.
I remember being in school and getting the assignment to read a book and I would cringe thinking that for the next nine weeks I would have to sit and listen to a story read aloud by the teacher or a classmate who had superior oral reading skills. That was of no interest to me. I would rather have had time to find a book that was about something that was of subject matter that I enjoyed or a book about a future career I may have.
Reading a book like James and the Giant Peach or poems from Shel Silverstein would have been exciting to me. I believe that giving the students more of a choice to which book they can read would help them to be more into reading in our curriculum. We could in turn do cross-curricular projects that would broaden their ideas on vocabulary and also make them want to dive further into the subject area. Of course, the book of their choice would have to be age and grade appropriate but we could discuss that with the students prior to having them choose a book.
Another way to get students involved in reading is to have an incentive program in which they get points for reading books and being assessed on it.
If a student earns a pre-determined amount of points then they can earn extra computer time or a free homework pass. Students like to see progress in themselves and they enjoy hands on activities. Each student could get a graph or other monitoring tool and keep track of their reading progress. That way they could see how far they have come from the beginning of the year.
The goal is to get children to read more often and if at all possible, to get them exposed to literature early in life. We can’t be at home with the kids so we need to do what we can now to help bring literature into their lives.
MyBookCASE
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
I really enjoyed the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar because I loved the pictures in the book and how the caterpillar kept eating more and getting bigger with each new food that was introduced. I liked to see what would happen as the story progressed. I was a fan of this book because there were not too many words. It had suspense and made me want to turn the page but it was enticing to the eye as well as my imagination.
2. I Spy Books by Walter Wick
The I Spy books are not the typical storybook, although, I thought it was a pretty neat idea to be able to open a book and basically solve a puzzle or problem without reading it. I like to solve puzzles and use logic to figure out different things and these books could keep me busy for hours. There are many types of I Spy books. There are holiday I Spy books and also just regular pictures where you need to find the objects listed on the page for that particular one. Even though I didn’t read a story in this specific book, I was able to read the words of the objects to be found.
3. The Berenstain Bear Books by Jan and Stan Berenstain
The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist
The Bike Lesson
The Golden Rules
The Berenstain Bear stories were interesting to me because they always taught me, as a reader, a life lesson. The books dealt with many types of social skills that young children have to deal with in school or with friends on a daily basis. I remember some of the books, which I mentioned about the Bears going to the dentist and sharing a bike and also the golden rules, which was about using manners and being a good person. The pictures were always entertaining and I felt that these books were easy to read.
4.James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
This creative book was one of my favorites. I enjoyed reading this because of all the imaginative scenes it has. Who would think someone could live in a peach pit? When it begins James has a hard time dealing with his parents dying so he then has to live with his aunts who were mean and nasty to him. I thought about the book when I was younger and realized that it had some funny parts and creative parts but I now see that there was violence and
abuse in that book. I never really noticed it until I was older but I see how it could be portrayed in another way. At a young age, I believe the creativity is what made this book enjoyable.
5.Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
As a child, I liked books that would rhyme or tell a story through a rhyming theme. This book was fun and exciting as were all of the Dr. Seuss books. I did read more than just this specific book, but this one was a favorite. My reason for always choosing this in Library class was because I wanted to read the rhyming words and see the funny and out-of-the-ordinary illustrations.
6.Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
This is a book of poems that Shel Silverstein writes and I loved reading all of the crazy ways he can share poetry with children but in a fun and extraordinary way. My favorite poem in the book was called “The What-ifs.” I enjoyed others but that always was the poem I read a million times. I now see that it is about anxiety that kids can have growing up.
7.Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? By Bill Martin Jr. And Eric Carle
I really liked this book because of the pictures and rhyme. I liked having someone read this story to me and have me finish the sentence and allow me to feel as though I was reading it by myself. I have read this book to children and allowed them to do the same thing.
8.Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
This book was special to me because it was always a great book before bedtime. I always liked that it wasn’t too long and even though the pictures weren’t really extravagant it still was a good story. This was another story that was always fun to have read to you.
9.Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
I remember reading this story in fifth grade. It was in our reading book but our teacher read the whole book to us when we finished it. We had a really neat art project to do to go along with the book where we had to create a first-aid kit. I thought that was a great lesson to accompany the book and it was fun to listen to the teacher read to us.
10.Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi
This book speaks for itself by the title. I of course enjoyed the humor in this book. I thought it was funny just looking at the pictures and definitely made it even funnier to have someone read it to me. This is a book that always gets passed around by family members and read to the younger kids in my immediate family.
The books I chose from my life that always seem to make an impact are the ones that I can remember reading without thinking about it. They pop into my head almost immediately and it sparks the place I was when I first heard them. All of these books have one specific thing in common and that is being entertained. I have been entertained every time I heard any of the books on my list. Young children like to be entertained by what they read and they like to be read to by others for enjoyment. Kids like to look at colorful illustrations and stories that may relate to their own lives. That’s how I feel about the books I chose as well.
To the faculty and staff of my building, I feel as though the students are not as excited about literature as they were at one time. I feel like they would rather spend their time on social media sites or texting their friends about their activities after school. Maybe letting the students choose a chapter book in a genre that they feel more comfortable, or allowing more input by the student rather than having the teacher choose all of the reading assignments.
I remember being in school and getting the assignment to read a book and I would cringe thinking that for the next nine weeks I would have to sit and listen to a story read aloud by the teacher or a classmate who had superior oral reading skills. That was of no interest to me. I would rather have had time to find a book that was about something that was of subject matter that I enjoyed or a book about a future career I may have.
Reading a book like James and the Giant Peach or poems from Shel Silverstein would have been exciting to me. I believe that giving the students more of a choice to which book they can read would help them to be more into reading in our curriculum. We could in turn do cross-curricular projects that would broaden their ideas on vocabulary and also make them want to dive further into the subject area. Of course, the book of their choice would have to be age and grade appropriate but we could discuss that with the students prior to having them choose a book.
Another way to get students involved in reading is to have an incentive program in which they get points for reading books and being assessed on it.
If a student earns a pre-determined amount of points then they can earn extra computer time or a free homework pass. Students like to see progress in themselves and they enjoy hands on activities. Each student could get a graph or other monitoring tool and keep track of their reading progress. That way they could see how far they have come from the beginning of the year.
The goal is to get children to read more often and if at all possible, to get them exposed to literature early in life. We can’t be at home with the kids so we need to do what we can now to help bring literature into their lives.